Thank you! I'm not the only one who hates sports wear. Especially baseball hats!

11:25 am September 19, 2013

Anonymous wrote:

The summer sun in Taipei is unrelenting sometime even metal sealed road melts. As such a free head gear is a welcome gift for outdoor activities. Moreover Taiwanese garment factory produces Baseball cap in China by the millions and they are dirt cheap even with your company or political party logo printed on it. Way to go when election campaigning cost hundreds of million.

5:52 pm September 19, 2013

Anonymous wrote:

It is probably not accurate to say that Ma promised to abolish wiretapping. He did commit to reducing wiretapping and making sure that it is not routine and not a political tool.

Most people in Taiwan also think that the struggle between Wang and Ma has strong ethnic overtones since Ma is a mainlander and Wang an ethnic Taiwanese who has supported Ma's opening to China with much enthusiasm.

But what is really strange about this piece is that it does not mention that Wang received an injunction and is still in office pending an appeal of the injunction by the KMT. This was an important sign of judicial independence: even the KMT and he president's actions are subject to judicial review. Taiwan's democracy is messy but once again is making progress.

6:31 am September 21, 2013

Baseball hats wrote:

For all those who like to look 'special'

5:33 pm September 21, 2013

Anonymous wrote:

Lol

1:40 am September 22, 2013

Americans have zero fashion sense wrote:

Agreed, baseball caps are ridiculous.

1:46 pm September 23, 2013

Anonymous wrote:

just a power struggle. Ma plans to keep his chairmanship throughout 2016, the only viable challenger is wang. attack first before being attacked is peculiarly ma-style

7:17 pm September 24, 2013

Ken wrote:

Base-ball hats are the symbol of American stupidity.

11:12 am September 27, 2013

Chuck M. Chen wrote:

WHAT HAPPENS IN TAIWAN IS NOT “TAIWANESE WATERGATE”. IT’S TEN TIMES WORSE.
Can you imagine the following event? Hypothetically, President Obama does not like Senate majority leader Harry Reid who disagrees with the President on certain issues. One day the head of the special investigative unit under the Justice Department skipped the Attorney General and directly presented some circumstantial evidence of Harry Reid’s possible wrong doing of meddling in the court case. The circumstantial evidence was obtained by possibly illegal wiretapping. Although Reid denied the allegation, Obama based on his own judgment and without further judiciary due process, immediately and forcefully asked the Democratic Party ethics committee to revoke Reid’s Democrat membership in the name of damaging party reputation.
The ethics committee immediately honored the President’s request. Because Reid lost his Democrat’s party membership, he consequently lost his Senate Majority Leadership position. This process happened in one day. Reid filed a suit in the court to protest the legality of President’s action. Reid temporarily holds his Majority Leader’s position because the court ruled in his favor. The case is not closed, because the Democratic Party appeals in the Court of Appeals.
This sounds totally absurd and fictitious? Absolutely. It would never happen in the U.S. But this happened in Taipei, Taiwan on September 11, 2013.
President Ma removed Wang Jin-Pyng as the Congressional Leader in one day using the circumstantial evidence obtained by possibly illegal wiretapping by the Special Investigative Unit and without judiciary due process. President Ma is the chairman of the ruling party KMT. He influenced the KMT ethics committee to revoke Wang Jin-Pyng’s party membership. Consequently, Wang lost his Congressional leader’s position because of his loss of KMT party membership.
President Ma has outrageously and seriously violated the constitution in Taiwan by destroying the basic principle of separation of powers. Further, he removed the Congressional Leader by using circumstantial evidence obtained by possibly illegal wiretapping and with on judiciary due process.
Democracy and respect for human rights have long been central components of U.S. foreign policy. Supporting democracy not only promotes fundamental American values, but also helps create a more secure, stable, and prosperous global arena in which the United States can advance its national interests.
We should condemn President Ma’s outrageous violation of the constitution in Taiwan. We should ask him to stop destroying the democracy in Taiwan.

2:17 pm November 12, 2013

Anonymous wrote:

During his tenure as Taipeh mayor (1998~2006) , the city budget, once enjoyed a surplus of NT$35billion (~US$1.6billion) in 1998, now achieved a deficit of NT$1,700 billion (~US$50billion) in 2006, incurring a deficit on health insurance spending of NT$34billion (~US$1billion). He also benefited from bargain price sales of government assets to private enterprises (i.e. Fubon-Taipei City Bank Merger), as well as inappropriate budgeting (usually 2~3x) of key construction projects (i.e. gondola.trtc.com.tw trtc.com.tw/c/selectstationNH.asp), both of which became inoperative within 6 months of operation.

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